


Out of Time

by fandomsnstuff



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - 1920s, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Falling In Love, Fluff and Angst, Getting Together, M/M, Mutual Pining, One Shot, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-08
Updated: 2019-12-08
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:33:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21712282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fandomsnstuff/pseuds/fandomsnstuff
Summary: Barry and Lup are scientists. Taako is their family whom they love very much. So, naturally, he's the guinea pig for testing their time machine.The machine is basically perfect, they're just sending him on a short stint to the 20th century to make sure it works for big jumps. What could possibly go wrong?...a whole lot, apparently.
Relationships: Barry Bluejeans/Lup, Kravitz/Taako (The Adventure Zone), Lup & Taako (The Adventure Zone)
Comments: 29
Kudos: 210





	Out of Time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Desiree_Harding](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Desiree_Harding/gifts).



> Big, big, BIG thanks and lots of love to my very good and best friend ever [Desiree_Harding](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Desiree_Harding/pseuds/Desiree_Harding) for:  
> 1\. Coming up with some very very good dialogue for this fic and then letting me use that dialogue (most notably in the dance hall and for sad drunk Taako).  
> 2\. Coming up with some very very good scene ideas/concepts that I also used intermittently.  
> 3\. Loving this au as much as I do.  
> 4\. Putting it in my head that other people may be interested in this au and thus prompting me to write this.  
> 5\. Helping me flesh out this story into something better and longer and more meaningful and emotional  
> She's real good and is literally the whole reason this happened and the whole reason it's as long as it is. She's on tumblr @desiree-harding-fic if you're interested, she writes some real good shit.  
> Anyway, enjoy these boys I love them and spent two and a half literal weeks on this.

**Act 1: Now**

We open in the modern day, and Taako is at the museum. All of them are. There’s a feature on the 20s that Lucretia was in charge of organizing, and they all agreed to come and support her like the good family that they are. She’s spent months working on this. Hours of research and interviews and referencing and more research. All in all, Lucretia is basically an expert on 1920s Chicago. 

She offered her family an exclusive tour around the exhibit with the project leader (herself) and they, of course, said yes. She’s been working so hard on this and if they said no, she’d probably kill them in their sleep. 

As she shows them around, they eventually come to the part about one of the most successful speakeasies that operated in Chicago during the prohibition era. Somehow, Lucretia was able to track down old documents from this speakeasy. Documents taking note of stock, payments, transportation, everything. They’re displayed proudly, next to an assortment of pictures, black and white and faded, taken of patrons inside.

“This is one of my favourites,” Lucretia says, pointing to one photo in particular. 

It’s a candid, taken of a table of people. The occupants are all laughing at some unheard joke. There are two men and two women, one of the men was sitting in just the right spot that all the photographer got was the back of his head. 

Lucretia’s talking, telling them something about the 20s and the speakeasy and the people that frequented it. Taako doesn’t pick up on any of it. His eyes glance over the pictures, barely registering them. He loves Lucretia, he really does, but this kind of stuff just doesn’t interest him. He said he’d come to the exhibit and support her, he didn’t say he’d pay attention. 

Besides, what do the 1920s have to do with him? 

He half pays attention as Lucretia gives them their tour, then he goes home to his apartment and life goes on as normal. 

Some time passes and, soon enough, Taako finds himself as Barry and Lup’s guinea pig. As usual. 

Barry and Lup are scientists, nerds through and through. Going to work and doing science, then coming home to do more science. Their job is to figure out how the world works, and their hobby is to take those findings and twist them until they break. 

Their most recent endeavour? Time travel. 

They don’t really have a  _ reason _ to solve time travel. They’re not going to sell their tech nor make it public in any way. They’re mostly doing it just to prove that they can. They’ve more or less perfected their machine, all that’s left to do is test it. Hence, Taako. 

Barry and Lup have two theories on how time travel works:

  1. When you go back in time, you can alter the timeline. Change the past and thus change the future. 
  2. Time travel exists on a closed loop. If you go back in time, you were always _meant_ to go back in time. You were already there. Whatever is going to happen when you go back has already happened. You can’t change it, no matter how much you want to. 



Since they don’t know which theory is true, Taako is under strict instructions to keep a low profile and try his best to not fuck with the past, just in case. 

Up until now, they’ve tested the machine with people and inanimate objects in small jumps. From hours, to days, months, and years. So for this test, they’ve decided to go big. They’re sending Taako almost 100 years back, to the 1920s. Chosen because of Lucretia’s newfound expertise on the era. 

She did some extra research for them, told them about an apartment building that existed then and still exists now. Barry inputs the coordinates Lucretia gave him, setting the machine to drop Taako in the boiler room. 

The time machine, before it was a time machine, was a transporter of sorts. A teleportation device. Could send anyone anywhere, as long as it had the coordinates. So when Barry and Lup decided to solve time travel, they just took their transporter and...modified it. Added the time travel element. However, the time travel portion of the machine isn’t quite as precise as the teleportation part. It’s much more experimental. The operator can pick a year to send the traveller back to, but it’ll drop the traveller randomly within a range of 7 years: the year chosen, 1-3 years before, or 1-3 years after. 

Today, Taako is getting dropped somewhere between 1920 and 1927. 

Then, when someone is sent back in time, time passes concurrently for the operator and the traveller. If the operator waits a day to return the traveller, the traveller is in the past for a day. If the operator waits three days, the traveller is there for three days. 

Once Taako’s in the past, he’s got an hour. It’s Barry and Lup’s usual choice for how long to leave someone, but still, it’s their biggest time jump yet. 

“You ready, ‘Ko?” Lup asks him. Taako nods, Barry pushes the button, and he’s gone. 

It all happens in the blink of an eye. One moment Taako is in his sister’s well-lit basement, and the next, he’s in a different basement that’s less well-lit and maybe a little warmer. 

He was instructed to not fuck with the past, but they also told him that he can, should, and is encouraged to wander around. See what he can see. Grab a newspaper so he can figure out when he is. He just has to make sure he’s out of sight before his hour is up. Hide out in an alleyway or something. 

So, after his eyes adjust to the dark, he finds his way to the door and heads out. He gets a bit of an odd look from the person at the front desk when he enters the lobby from the door down to the basement, but he keeps his eyes forward and pretends like he’s supposed to be there. 

He steps out onto the street and takes a look around. There are men in suits and women in dresses all going about their business, old (or, well,  _ new _ ) cars rumble up and down the street, and it’s like a scene from a movie. It’s so much quieter, compared to home. Where he’s used to honking horns and idling busses and general commotion, Taako can hear the click of shoes on the sidewalk, can pick out precise pieces of conversations as people walk past. There’s less traffic, less people, less noise. 

Also, he notes, it’s fucking  _ cold _ . Everyone else is bundled up in nice, warm coats and hats and gloves, and all Taako’s got is a suit jacket. A gust of frigid wind blows past, cutting through his one layer of warmth and making his eyes water. He shoves his hands in his pockets and looks up and down the street. He spots a newspaper stand a little further down, so he steps away from the apartment building and into the flow of people. He strolls down the street, casual, pretending like he 100% definitely belongs here and also isn’t freezing his entire ass off right now. 

As he walks past the newspaper stand, he reaches out and swipes one without even breaking his stride. No one notices. 

He keeps walking. Once he reaches the next intersection, he keeps going straight. Then he turns, crosses horizontally, crosses straight again, then horizontal again, looping in a wide circle right back to where he started. He heads back to the apartment building. 

As much as he would love to wander around the city, it’s freezing, and Taako doesn’t particularly want to get hypothermia today. 

Luckily for Taako, the person at the front desk seems to have vacated the premises in the five minutes he was gone, so he slips back down into the boiler room unnoticed. He finds the light and turns it on, bathing the room in a soft orange. It’s a little dirty, but it’s a basement, what else could he expect?

He finds a chair that’s down there (for  _ some _ reason) and sits near the boiler, trying to warm himself up from his brief stint outside. Looking at the newspaper he swiped, he now knows why it was so cold. 

November 1924. 

He checks the watch Lup gave him to track his time, and he’s still got plenty left. So he gets comfortable in his shitty basement chair and flips open the newspaper. He takes his time going through it, he’s in no rush. He finishes it and checks the time. He goes to put the watch back in his pocket, but pauses. Checks it again. 

3:08. 

He should’ve been zapped back home eight minutes ago. He should’ve blinked and then fallen right on his ass because he’s sitting down and there’s no chair waiting for him back in Lup’s basement. He shouldn’t still be here. 

Taako waits an hour. Nothing. 

He waits another hour. His stomach rumbles. He doesn’t move, he’s still in the boiler room of an apartment building in 1924 watching the minutes go by. 

“Well,” he says, staring at the second hand as it ticks around the face of his watch, “that’s not good.” 

**Act 2: Then**

Taako’s got nothing to eat or drink down in the boiler room, but he’s also got no money and nowhere else to go. He lasts three days before he finally ventures outside. He’s hungry and thirsty and he figures there’s gotta be somewhere in the city where someone is willing to feed him. He’s also starting to wish he’d paid attention during Lucretia’s tour of her exhibit. 

He pulls hit suit jacket tighter around himself as he walks down the street, trying to brace himself against the bitter November wind. “God, Lup,” he mutters to himself, trying to keep his teeth from chattering, “all those brains and you didn’t think to give me a proper coat?” 

As he wanders the city, there are people coming in and out of different buildings, laughter and conversation echoing down the streets as the doors of various establishments open and close, depositing them outside. 

Taako gets hit with a blast of warmth and loud music when a door opens right as he’s walking past. A man and woman come stumbling out onto the street, arms linked, laughing and brushing past Taako without a care in the world. Taako looks at the building they just came out of, the sign above the door labelling it as a dance hall. It’s open and free and warm inside, so Taako sighs, resigned to his current situation, and pulls the door open. 

There’s an attendant right inside who gives him a strange look when he walks in. It’s the middle of November and here he is, coming in from the cold in nothing but a suit. Taako tries to act casual, while internally praying that Lup and Barry have fixed whatever went wrong, and he’s going to blink and be back home any second now. 

Nothing happens, of course, and instead Taako finds himself hovering near the back wall of the lively dance hall. It smells like sweat and cigarettes, there’s a jazz band at the other end of the room, and couples are dancing happily in the big open space in the middle. Taako’s a little in awe, watching them. He’s seen swing dances in movies, but those are modern movies, modern actors. It’s kind of incredible seeing these dances done by the people who lived them. They’re much smoother, much more natural than the actors he’s seen doing these same moves. 

He lingers there, warming up from his time outside and trying to ignore the gnawing in his stomach. He’s there for some twenty minutes when a young woman comes and leans against the wall near him. She is the exact picture of a flapper; short dark hair, darkly lined eyes, brightly painted lips. She’s got a cigarette held daintily between her fingers. She looks over at Taako as she brings it to her lips, and her eyes scan him head to toe, evaluating. Taako looks at the ground, avoiding eye contact, hoping she’ll go away. 

Typical to the way things have been going for Taako recently, she stays put. 

She blows out her smoke, and Taako has to keep himself from outwardly cringing as it clouds around him.  _ God _ how he misses the future and all its anti-smoking shit.

“What’s’a matter, Joe?” She says, her cadence something Taako thought was made up by Hollywood. “Not up for a dance?” 

Taako is completely tense, his posture stiff and anything but casual. He doesn’t know what he’s supposed to  _ do _ here. He wishes he could just shrink into his jacket and disappear. “I can’t.” 

She laughs lightly, “and why’s that? You  _ are  _ in a dance hall, after all.” 

“I’m no good at it.” 

She grins, “and yet here you are.” 

Taako stares harder at the ground, just wishing for a hole to open up and swallow him right then and there. He doesn’t care about the space-time continuum or whatever the fuck, he would absolutely  _ love _ to be brought back home right about now. He can feel the woman’s eyes burning through him, and he almost worries that she can sense how out of place (out of  _ time _ ) he is. 

_ Go away, go away,  _ Taako thinks,  _ God, please, just go away.  _

The woman stays right where she is, much to Taako’s chagrin. She takes a drag from her cigarette and blows the smoke right in Taako’s face. He tries to hold his breath until it dissipates, he hates the smell of cigarettes. 

“So if you’re not here for dancing,” she says, “what are you here for? Company? ‘Cause I don’t know if you noticed, but everyone here is taken.” 

_ I hate this, I hate this, I hate this, I- _ “Not really one for company, either.” 

She huffs a breath of laughter, “you’re funny, Joe. Say, you got the time?” 

Taako digs into his pocket and pulls out the watch Lup gave him and shows it to her. 9:45. The woman hums, and looks Taako over again. Taako avoids her eyes and puts his watch away, hoping that this’ll be the end of it and she’ll finally leave him alone, but then she smiles, all teeth and nothing but mischievous, and he doesn’t want to know what that smile means- 

“What do you say we get out of here?” 

Taako’s face immediately flushes,  _ oh God, oh God, Lup I swear I’m going to fucking kill you, oh my God _ \- “I don’t think-” 

She cuts Taako off by slinging an arm around his shoulders. “Don’t worry,” she says, “I know this great juice joint downtown, and I think the company there will be  _ much _ more to your liking.” 

Taako doesn’t know what the fuck that means. He doesn’t know what  _ juice joint _ means, he doesn’t know what she means by  _ company _ , he doesn’t know what she means by saying that it’ll be  _ much more to his liking _ . Taako’s mind is running at a million miles an hour, trying to figure out what to do, what to  _ say _ , but the woman is just staring at him now, so Taako nods. 

“That’s a good man,” she says. She holds out her hand to shake, “the name’s Sloane.” 

“Taako,” he says, taking her hand. 

“Taako,” she repeats. Taako prays she doesn’t think his name is too weird. It can give people pause in  _ his _ time, he can only imagine what it sounds like here. But she doesn’t comment on it, instead she tightens the grip on his hand and turns, leading him through the dance hall towards the entrance, Taako can do nothing but follow. The attendant hands Sloane her coat from the closet, and she frowns when she notices Taako doesn’t make a move to get his own. 

“I’m from out of town,” Taako says, feeling obligated to give her an explanation. 

Understanding seems to dawn on Sloane’s face, and Taako really wishes he knew what he just said to her. 

“First night?” 

Taako shrugs, noncommittal, “something like that.” 

“Well,” she says, taking his hand again, “we’ll be sure to show you a good time.” 

Sloane pulls Taako out of the dance hall and back onto the street. She waves down a cab and pushes Taako towards it, following him as he climbs into the backseat, which is when Taako is reminded that no, seatbelts were  _ not _ always present in cars. 

Before they go to whatever this  _ juice joint _ is, Sloane directs the cab to stop at an apartment complex, and someone else slides into the backseat. This new person has got short, close-cropped, strawberry-blonde hair, and is dressed entirely in a man’s suit, much more fashionable than Taako’s. 

She looks across Sloane and over at Taako curiously, then up at Sloane, “new friend?”

Sloane smiles, a glint in her eye, “he said he wasn’t  _ one for company _ at the dance hall.” 

The new person hums, understanding. Taako wonders, again, what the  _ fuck _ that means. “Well,” she says, holding a hand out to Taako, “I’m Hurley.” 

Taako takes it, “Taako.” 

Their cab continues on its way, taking them to wherever it is Sloane wants to take him, and it finally drops them off in front of a restaurant. Through the front windows it looks busy inside. Most of the tables are filled with couples and groups, chattering away. But instead of heading for the front door, Sloane looks up and down the sidewalk before slipping into an alley to the right of the building. Taako looks over at Hurley, confused. 

“After you,” she says, gesturing towards where Sloane just disappeared. 

_ Oh, _ Taako thinks,  _ I am absolutely about to get jumped.  _

But he can’t think of a way out, so into the dark alley he goes. Hurley follows behind him, and Sloane is waiting near the end, next to a nondescript door on the side of the restaurant. He looks around the alley, and it doesn’t seem like there’s anyone there to jump him, but he’s also pretty sure Hurley and Sloane could take him down if they really wanted to. Instead, when Taako reaches Sloane at the end of the alley, she grins, and taps a rhythm out on the door. 

It’s opened a moment later by another woman. She’s easily 6’4 and absolutely  _ jacked _ . She eyes Taako over, suspicious.  _ Oh, so this is where I get jumped, then,  _ Taako thinks, but she notices Sloane standing next to him, and her suspicion dissipates. 

“I see you made a new friend, Sloane,” she says, smiling. 

“Of course,” Sloane says, “you know I’m nothing but friendly, Killian.” 

Killian shakes her head, stepping aside to let them in, “you’re lucky your father owns the joint, letting you bring whoever you please down here. ” 

Sloane takes Taako by the hand and pulls him inside. “I know,” she says, brushing past Killian. 

Sloane takes Taako down a plain hallway, even further into the back of the restaurant, and Taako still isn’t sure if he should be scared or not right now. But then they get to the end of that plain hallway, and Sloane takes him through another door, and he is blown away. 

Inside the door is a club, and a fancy-looking one at that. It’s like the dance hall, if it had one  _ hell _ of a budget for interior decorating. There are crystal light fixtures dangling from the ceiling, lush carpet lining the floor, tables scattered around, a shiny wooden dance floor in the middle of the room, filled with couples dancing to the music being played. 

Speaking of music, holy  _ shit _ . It’s...incredible. Taako knows he’s never quite had an ear for music like Lup does. He doesn’t know much about it, and if you asked him what the difference was between what’s being played here and what was being played at the dance hall, he couldn’t tell you. But something about the music here is just so much  _ more _ than what he was hearing before. The music here fills the room, it reaches out to every nook and cranny until you feel like you’re enveloped in it. It feels alive, almost. The dancers seem much more energetic than the ones he was watching before. Taako almost wants to dance, too, even though he doesn’t know how. 

He looks for where the music is coming from, and his breath is taken away. There, on a small stage against one of the walls, sitting at a piano, is one of the most beautiful men Taako has ever seen in his life. He’s bathed in soft, orangey-yellow light, the angle of it casting shadows that accentuate the features of his face. His lips are curved up in a small smile, his fingers dance expertly across the piano, his eyes are lidded and Taako can’t tell if they’re closed, or if he’s just looking down at the keys, but he is absolutely mesmerising to look at.

“See something you like?” 

Taako is cut out of his reverie by Sloane’s voice. He looks over at her and she’s grinning at him, smug as anything. “I could introduce you,” she says, “if you want.” 

This throws Taako off. The look on her face and the tone of her voice makes it seem like she’s offering to introduce him because- like she  _ knows _ that Taako’s- 

That’s when Taako notices, for the first time, that not all the couples on the dance floor are man-woman, but all of them  _ are _ dancing very close to each other. 

_ Ah,  _ he thinks, _ so that’s what she meant by “much more to my liking”. Go figure. _

“Yeah,” he says, “sure, okay, introduce me.” 

Sloane claps her hands together. “Great! Let’s get you a drink, and I’ll introduce you when he takes a break.” 

Taako gets lead across the room to a bar he somehow didn’t notice before. The bartender comes over and smiles at them. 

“Hey Sloane,” he says, “new friend?” 

Sloane rolls her eyes, “you’re the third person to say that, Avi, and yes, this is Taako and he needs a drink.” 

Avi looks over at Taako. “What’s your poison?” He asks. 

It’s as he’s sitting at the bar that this all finally clicks for Taako. The door in the alleyway, the big buff woman opening it, the club being tucked in behind a real restaurant.  _ This is a fucking speakeasy,  _ Taako realizes.  _ It’s the fucking prohibition era and this is an illegal speakeasy. Holy shit. _

“Uh, whatever’s good. I’m not picky,” he says, dodging the question because he has no clue what they actually served (or,  _ serve _ , present tense) in _ fucking speakeasies _ . 

Avi slides a glass over to him. He takes a sip, and it’s whiskey. Taako’s never really been one for whiskey, he doesn’t particularly enjoy it, but he can live with it. Now with his drink in hand, Sloane brings Taako over to a table in a back corner and sits him down. 

“You just sit tight,” she says, “and I’ll bring Kravitz over when he’s done playing.” 

Then she turns, and bounds off into the crowd, probably to look for Hurley. Taako sits and watches the piano player,  _ Kravitz _ , as he fills the room with music. There’s another musician up there with him, but all Taako can hear is piano. It seems like no time has passed when the music stops. Taako watches Kravitz stand and make his way to the side of the stage, where Sloane is waiting for him as he steps down. He sees Sloane say something to Kravitz, then she takes his hand and starts pulling him through the crowd, back towards Taako. 

“Kravitz,” Sloane says when they reach the table, “this is Taako. Taako, this is Kravitz.” 

Kravitz is just as handsome up close as he was at a distance. He smiles and reaches out a hand, “pleasure.” 

Taako takes it, “likewise.” 

“I’ll leave you two to talk, then,” Sloane says, already on her way back to the middle of the room, “I’ve got a dance waiting for me.” 

Kravitz laughs, watching Sloane go as he takes the empty seat next to Taako, and they talk. Mundane things, really, but Kravitz finds that talking to Taako is incredibly easy. Sometimes he finds talking to new people can lead to awkward pauses and uncomfortable silences, but somehow he and Taako never run out of things to say. 

Taako is indescribable. He’s stunning, even if his suit is a few years out of fashion. He’s clever, with a sharp wit and a quick mind, although his voice is a little...odd? His cadence sounds a touch unnatural, almost like he’s trying to mimic what everyone around them sounds like. Kravitz wonders where he came from. 

Kravitz is dropping hints the whole night, and at first it seems that Taako either doesn’t pick up on it, or isn’t interested, but further into their conversation, his demeanor seems to change to something much more flirtatious. Kravitz doesn’t want to get his hopes up, but he’s got a good feeling about Taako. 

Taako doesn’t understand the 1920s gay slang, so it takes him some time to recognize Kravitz’s flirting, but once he does, he reciprocates. He may not be able to do much here, but flirting? _ That _ he can do. And, flirting aside, Kravitz is just interesting to talk to. He’s funny and smart and clever and when Taako’s stomach rumbles embarrassingly loudly, he just smiles and orders them something to eat. 

At the end of the night, he invites Taako to come back to his apartment to...continue their conversation. They climb into a cab together, and it’s midnight, maybe. Kravitz gives the driver the address. 

“Huh,” Taako says. 

“What?” Kravitz asks. 

“Oh, nothing,” and Taako smiles, as if the address Kravitz just gave to the cab driver in 1924 doesn’t exactly match his own modern day address, “just thinking.” 

Kravitz smiles, and they keep talking throughout the cab ride. They talk and Taako stays casual as Kravitz leads him to  _ his own fucking front door _ and into the apartment. Taako looks around. Same floor plan, different furniture, different appliances. He doesn’t know what else he expected. 

They sit on Kravitz’s couch and talk. And talk and talk and talk. The clock reads 2. They’ve shifted closer to each other as they talked, and they’re almost touching. There’s a small lull in the conversation. Not awkward, just quiet. And they’re looking at each other. Smiling at each other. 

Kravitz’s mother always told him to be cautious and trust his instincts. In this case, trusting his instincts is anything but cautious. If he’s wrong about Taako, so many things could go awry. Taako could attack him physically, then and there. He could tell his landlord. The clubs. Kravitz could be out of a home and a job if he’s wrong. But Taako is incredible. He’s bright and colourful and eccentric and Kravitz is enamoured already. 

Kravitz leans in and kisses Taako, soft and slow and hesitant. There’s the quiet ambiance of a city at 2am outside his window and the sound of his heart pounding in his ears to keep him company as Taako kisses back. 

Taako doesn’t know what kind of repercussions this could have on the timeline, if any. But Kravitz is handsome and kind and gentle, and if Barry and Lup wanted to make sure Taako wouldn’t fuck up the past, they should’ve made sure he wouldn’t get  _ fucking stuck here.  _ If he’s here for the foreseeable future, he’s at least going to have some fun.

They pull back, eventually, and Kravitz smiles at Taako. “Ah,” Kravitz says, “I thought so.” 

Taako scoffs, shoves him lightly, and calls him a smug bastard before pulling him back in for another kiss. 

Taako sticks around, and things move quickly from there. Kravitz invites Taako to stay with him. He accepts. They fall fast, the two of them.    
  
_ I shouldn’t get too attached _ , Taako tells himself at first. But as the days turn into weeks turn into months, Taako finds himself getting more comfortable. He goes and listens to Kravitz play every night at the speakeasy. He gets to know people. Hurley, Sloane, other regulars, the nice teen girl who’s always the cashier whenever Taako goes to the grocery store, the little old lady next door who gives Taako and Kravitz scones every Sunday afternoon, and who seems to know that they’re more than just roommates, but also doesn’t seem to particularly give a shit. Matching their cadence as he talks gets easier, and he picks up on the slang. 

He lets Kravitz teach him how to dance. 

Soon enough, Taako blends in. Mostly. There are still some moments where he has to keep himself in check, where he’s reminded that he doesn’t belong here. 

He mentions Lup, and Kravitz asks about home. He deflects, says something vague, steers Kravitz’s attention to something else. The Great War comes up, briefly, and Taako fades into the background of the conversation. They assume he fought and doesn’t want to talk about it. He doesn’t correct them. 

Kravitz smokes, like every other fucking person in this era, and Taako refuses to kiss him with cigarette breath. He makes Kravitz brush his teeth whenever he comes home before he’ll let him give him a kiss hello. Kravitz thinks it’s weird, but he doesn’t complain, he just starts carrying mints around. 

Kravitz takes note of these quirks, too. 

Sometimes he’ll catch Taako staring off into space with a faraway look in his eyes when he thinks Kravitz isn’t looking. There are times where Taako will start saying something, and stop halfway through. He’ll pause, seeming to think over what he wants to say, and either say it again differently, or just not say it at all. 

The months turn into a year. 

Candlenights 1925 rolls around, and there’s a party at the speakeasy. Kravitz is taking a break from playing, Hurley and Sloane take a break from dancing. The four of them sit around the table in the back corner, where Kravitz can relax after just being in front of everyone. Sloane cracks a joke, and they all laugh. None of them take note of the camera flash that goes off behind Taako’s head. 

It’s on that night, as Kravitz and Taako are tucked up in bed, hiding away from the harsh cold outside, that Kravitz tells Taako he loves him for the first time. 

“I love you,” he says, running his hand up and down Taako’s back. 

Taako pushes himself up from where his head had been resting on Kravitz’s chest and looks down at him. “You do?” 

Kravitz meets his eyes. “Yeah.” 

Taako’s silent for a moment, then he leans down and kisses Kravitz, soft and slow. He pulls back, hovers just a breath away from him, looking in his eyes. “I love you too,” he says. 

The year turns into two, which turns into three, which turns into three and a half. 

It’s June 1928 when Taako remembers what’s coming. And once he remembers, he wants to do something about it. Get Kravitz ready. Prepare him. Make sure he’ll be okay. They’re having dinner one night when Taako brings it up. 

“Hey,” he says, “so this might seem like a super weird, out of nowhere question, but what have you got for stocks?” 

Kravitz, used to Taako being a little odd at this point, thinks the question over for a second. “I’ve got some. But not much.” 

Taako nods. “Okay, great, cool, you should sell them.” 

At this, Kravitz pauses. “What?” 

“You know, sell them. Keep the cash. Put it away somewhere. Speaking of, we should start saving money. And maybe keep more cash around. Rely on the bank less.” 

“Why?” 

“I just don’t think the stock market is the way to  _ go _ , you know? It’s basically gambling, and for all you know you could just end up losing money if you wait too long to sell your stocks. So you should just sell them now. Keep the cash around. And we should start a savings jar. Put spare change and shit in it.” 

To Kravitz, this sentiment from Taako is very out of the blue. But he trusts Taako, and he trusts his judgement. He sells the few stocks he has and keeps the cash stored away in the apartment. They start a savings jar. They put spare change and tips from when Kravitz performs in it. Sometimes, after Taako drops some change in, he’ll look at the jar for a long moment, as if he’s evaluating it, before nodding decisively to himself and walking away. It’s moments like that that make Kravitz wish he could know what goes on in Taako’s head. 

It’s late March 1929 when Taako brings up closing out Kravitz’s bank account. 

“I just don’t think it’s a good idea to rely on the bank,” he says, “what if they just _decide_ not to give you your money one day? Then you’re broke and shit out of luck. It’s best to just have cash. Then you know how much money you have, where it is, and what’s being done with it.” 

Kravitz takes a week or two to think it over, but eventually agrees with him. He loves and trusts Taako. If he thinks it’s better that they control all their money this way, then Kravitz is willing to go along with it. 

They get the paperwork to close out Kravitz’s bank account, Kravitz fills it out and signs it. It’s a day in mid-April 1929 when Kravitz is going to go to the bank to officially get it done. Then something comes up. Nothing serious, just a club downtown asking him to come and play. 

“I’m going to go and play for them,” Kravitz says, “you go and take care of the bank account.”    
  
“But will they even let me do that?” Taako says, used to needing two pieces of ID and a deal with the devil to be able to do pretty much anything. “I’m not you.” 

Kravitz shrugs, “I’ve filled out and signed the paperwork, I’m sure it’s fine. Plus, Brad works there. If they’re giving you trouble, just ask for him. You know he’ll advocate for you.” 

Taako nods. Right. Brad Bradson. A regular at the speakeasy, super nice dude, and stuck in a constant back and forth with Killian for the title of arm wrestling champion. 

Kravitz turns to leave, but Taako stops him with a hand on his arm. “Taako?” He says, a furrow in his brow at the very serious look on Taako’s face. 

“I just want you to know that no matter what, I’m going to stick with you.” 

Kravitz smiles, gives him a kiss. “I know,” he says, “I’ll see you later, I love you.” 

“I love you too.” 

Kravitz leaves, and Taako putters around the apartment for a few extra minutes. He checks over the paperwork one more time, just to make sure it’s right. He looks over at their savings jar sitting on the kitchen counter. He nods to himself. He knows he’s doing the right thing. The Great Depression is right around the corner, and he doesn’t remember exactly how it worked (or, how it _will_ work), but this way they’ll have their money with them. They can track it. They’ll be okay. They’ll get through it together. 

Taako leaves the apartment and walks to the bank, and he’s lucky, when he walks up to the teller, who does he see but Brad? Brad smiles, greets him happily, asks what he can do for him. Taako hands over the paperwork. Brad looks it over.    
  
“You’re going to put me out of a job, Taako,” he jokes. 

Taako laughs. What else can he do? 

The transaction happens quickly, and soon enough Taako is on his way back to the apartment with a wad of cash tucked into the inner pocket of his coat. He stares at the sidewalk as he goes, his thoughts far away, thinking of what’s coming. 

Kravitz returns home later that evening. He calls out for Taako, but gets no response. He calls out again. Still nothing. He checks the bedroom, thinking maybe Taako went to sleep a little early tonight, but no. No Taako. The apartment isn’t very big, so it doesn’t take long for Kravitz to realize that Taako isn’t there, and the bank would’ve closed hours ago, so he’s not there either. 

_ Maybe he went out,  _ he thinks. So he sits on the couch with a book to wait for Taako to come back. 

Taako doesn’t come back. 

**Act 3: After**

One second, Taako is walking back to his apartment on a sunny April afternoon, a wad of cash in his coat pocket, staring at the sidewalk, thinking about the incoming financial crisis. The next, the sun is gone, and he’s stepping off a ledge that wasn’t there before. He stumbles and falls to his knees, then there are arms around him and his sister’s voice. 

“Holy shit, Taako. Oh my God. I’m sorry, I’m sorry, holy shit, I’m  _ so _ sorry.” 

Taako blinks, still in a daze. This is- he wasn’t expecting this. He has almost all the money. He didn’t even get to say goodbye. “Lup?” 

Lup pulls back from hugging Taako, “Koko, I’m so sorry. I’m so,  _ so _ sorry.” 

Taako sees his sister’s face again for the first time in nearly four and a half years, and he cries. He cries of happiness, seeing Lup, and he cries of sadness, losing Kravitz, leaving him behind, involuntarily screwing him over. 

She holds him tight, and he returns her embrace. They sit there on the ground for a while, just holding each other. 

“Okay, that’s it,” Lup says as they stand, “we did it, hooray for time travel, we’re never using this thing again. Time travel is now and forever banned.” 

They go up to the main floor. Lup tells him that all his stuff is upstairs, that once his lease was up with his apartment, they cleared it out. They also cancelled his phone plan, after a while. No point in having his bank account drained for his phone and rent while he wasn’t there. 

_ Right, _ Taako thinks,  _ my apartment that was also Kravitz’s apartment that was also our apartment. _

They ask him what happened. What he did, where he stayed. He deflects. Says he doesn’t want to talk about it, not right now. They leave him be.

Later, he reunites with everyone else, and it’s very sweet. Magnus cries because of course he does, and wraps him up in a big bear hug. Everyone else gives him hugs and there are teary eyes all around. When Taako sees Angus, he pauses. 

“Hold up, what the fuck is this?” He says, gesturing to Angus’s...everything. 

Angus, now 14 (almost 15), looks down at himself and back up at Taako. He barely needs to tilt his head up to meet Taako’s eyes. “Um,” he says, “growth spurt?”

“Who the fuck told you you were allowed to do that?” 

“Puberty?” 

Taako scoffs. “That’s stupid,” he says. 

Angus smiles and hugs him, “I missed you too, Taako.” 

Taako hugs him back. “Yeah, yeah, don’t be a sap about it.” 

Taako stays with Lup and Barry for a little bit. Kravitz’s money stays tucked safely away in the coat he was wearing. He doesn’t so much as look at it. He restarts his phone plan, and expresses interest in getting his own apartment again. He loves Lup and Barry, but having all his stuff packed up in cardboard boxes and shoved into their guest room is a little suffocating. Not to mention, they would probably like their garage back, rather than having it full of Taako’s furniture. 

Lup, the loving sister that she is, takes it upon herself to help Taako in his apartment hunting. 

“Hey look,” she says one day, about a month and a half after Taako’s return, “there’s a listing for an apartment in your old building.” 

She turns her laptop towards him so he can see the ad. Taako hums, looking over the generic pictures of the empty apartment. He ignores the ache in his chest. “Wouldn’t it be funny,” he says, “if I get the exact same apartment from before?” 

Lup laughs. 

He gets the exact same apartment that he had before. 

His family all laughs as they help him move in. They call it a stroke of luck. A funny coincidence. Taako smiles. He thinks of it as a cruel twist of fate. A terrible joke the universe is playing on him. Bad karma for stealing most of Kravitz’s money, however accidental the theft may have been. 

His family has him moved in within the day. They all have some cheap pizza together, then everyone heads out, leaving Taako alone. Left with nothing but his thoughts, he starts mentally comparing the two versions of this apartment that he knows. Picturing Kravitz’s things in place of his own. Replacing the oven and the fridge with older versions. Seeing the view outside his window differently. Less buildings, less lights, less cars.

Every morning since he’s been back, he half expects Kravitz to be there when he wakes up. Before he’s fully conscious, he reaches over to the other side of the bed with a mumbled  _ good morning _ , and expects to be met with a warm embrace, but only finds empty sheets. Living in the same apartment again just makes it worse. Sometimes he feels like he can see Kravitz walking around, can hear him singing as he goes about his day. Taako hangs up the coat he was wearing the day he came back and shoves it all the way to the back of his closet, the money still in the pocket, untouched. 

He tries to go about his life as if nothing ever happened, but he slips up sometimes. He’ll say something in conversation, and it’s not until he notices the person he’s talking to is looking at him funny that he realizes he’s used some old slang he picked up. His voice will slip into the old-timey cadence he got so used to using. He’s caught off guard, sometimes, when he sees alcohol in the store. He has to resist striking up a full-on conversation with the apathetic teenager that rings through his groceries. He misses the Sunday afternoon scones from the little old lady next door.

He calls out to Kravitz, once. There’s some event going on at Lup’s work, and Barry’s busy, so she invites Taako to come along. It’s a fancy event, so he’s wearing a suit. As he’s getting ready, he turns his room completely upside down looking for his suspenders (that he doesn’t need nor have, anymore).    
  
“Kravitz!” He calls, digging through a drawer he’s already looked in twice, “where are my suspenders?!” 

He gets no response. 

“Kravitz!” He calls again, starting to dig through another drawer. 

Again, no response. Taako turns to face his bedroom door and inhales, ready to call out again, when he remembers. He’s getting no response because his apartment is empty. Because Kravitz is in the past, long dead by now. He sighs, remembers that belts exist, and finishes getting ready. 

It’s four months after his return when Taako goes to the museum. Almost five years after it opened, Lucretia’s feature on the 1920s is still up and thriving. He wanders through it slowly, until he reaches the part on the speakeasy. He stops. He looks over all the documents, all the pictures. He finds one with Kravitz in it. Hurley and Sloane are in it, too, but Taako’s eyes are locked on Kravitz. He’s mid-laugh. Happy as anything. Taako can practically hear his laughter echoing in his ears. His heart aches for him. He wishes that, at the least, he could’ve said goodbye. He wishes that he was able to give him the money from his account and kiss him one last time. He wishes-

“Taako?” A voice from behind him cuts into his thoughts. He turns to see Lucretia standing there. She steps up beside him, “what are you doing here?” 

Taako shrugs, noncommittal, and looks back at the picture. The two of them stand there in silence for a moment. 

“This picture is one of my favourites, you know,” Lucretia says. “They all look so happy. Part of me wishes I could know what they were laughing at.” 

Taako hums, his eyes tracing the curve of Kravitz’s smile. “Probably some dumb joke about the government,” he mutters. 

Lucretia nods. Not that Taako notices, with all his attention on Kravitz. They fall back into a companionable silence.

“What happened to him?” Taako asks after a moment, pointing at Kravitz. 

“Kravitz? He was a musician. Played at the speakeasy a lot. Piano, mostly.” 

“No,” Taako says, “after that.” 

“I don’t know.” 

“You don’t?” 

“Well,” Lucretia says, “I do but I don’t. He went missing at some point in the 30s, I know that much. But as for what actually happened to him, no clue.” 

Lucretia doesn’t know that Taako knew Kravitz, loved Kravitz, that he present-tense  _ loves _ Kravitz, so she doesn’t know how his heart sinks when he hears this. For all she knows, this is just...curiosity. “Missing?” He says, his voice small. 

“Yeah, there’s just no more information on him after a certain point. It could be that something bad happened to him, but there’s no reason to assume that, necessarily. It could just be that the 30s hit him hard and he wasn’t able to work for a while. Or maybe he moved and changed his name. There’s no way to know, really.” 

Taako stares at the photo. Kravitz is laughing in it, but now all Taako can do is imagine him alone and broke and dead in an alley somewhere, and it’s all Taako’s fault. He takes a deep breath, wills away the tears pricking at his eyes. 

“That’s some real interesting stuff, Luce,” he says, “thanks.” 

“You’re welcome,” she says, still confused as to what prompted this. 

Taako takes one last look at the picture before turning to leave. “I’ll see you later.” 

“Thanks for stopping by?” She says, her inflection making it sound more like a question, as she watches Taako walk away. 

Taako goes home, and he thinks about Kravitz. Missing. Gone. Vanished. Lucretia said it might not have been anything bad, but she also said it could’ve been something bad. And he disappeared in the 30s, during the Depression, after Taako disappeared with most of his money. He told Kravitz he would stick with him no matter what, and look at what happened. Taako disappeared, then so did Kravitz. He probably died in the streets. Alone, broke, cold, hungry, and it’s all because of Taako. 

But- 

_ Maybe I go back for him _ , Taako thinks,  _ maybe I go back for him and he comes back here with me. He would like it here. We could be happy here.  _

_ No,  _ he scolds himself,  _ this is just wishful thinking. Lup said no more time travel. Not after what happened the last time. I can’t put that sort of stress on her. I won’t. Besides, what good would it do? He probably hates me anyway.  _

So Taako just tries to live his life, tries to move on. The days and weeks and months drag by and the next thing he knows, he’s been back in the modern world for a year. Lup, naturally, throws a party. 

Taako’s attempts to move on have proved to be a little fruitless, so being reminded that it’s been a year since he fucked over the love of his life and basically sentenced him to death is not great for his emotional state. Not that Lup knows this. Or anyone else for that matter. For all their prodding questions on what he got up to in the past, he’s managed to keep it vague. 

To make up for his shitty emotional state, Taako takes advantage of the amount of alcohol Lup bought for her “Hooray Taako Isn’t Dead” party and gets absolutely fucking  _ smashed _ . Or zozzled, as he puts it when Magnus asks him how he’s doing. 

The party is full of drinking and laughter, but eventually it winds down and everyone heads home. All that’s left are Barry, Lup, and Taako. Taako is sitting at the coffee table, cross-legged on the floor, and has his head resting on his folded arms, staring off into space. He’s still drunk, but it’s at the point where he crashes and is just tired. Emotional. 

Barry sets about tidying up his trashed living room. Lup kneels down next to Taako and puts a gentle hand on his back. 

“Hey Koko,” she says, “party’s over. What do you say I take you home?” 

“No,” Taako says, his voice soft. 

“No?” 

“I don’t like it there.” 

“Why not?” 

“It’s lonely.” 

“Lonely?” 

“He’s never there.” 

“Who-” 

“Every day,” Taako says, barely even acknowledging Lup, still staring off into space, “every single day I wake up, and I think he’s going to be there. Every day I go back and I think he’s going to be waiting for me when I walk in. But he’s not. He never is. And I shouldn’t expect him to be. He’s not from now. I left him behind, and he’s gone, and he’s never going to be there, no matter how much I want him to be.” 

Taako blinks, and there are tears rolling down his cheeks. Lup looks up at Barry, who looks just as caught off guard as she feels, and back down at Taako. “Who’s not there, Koko?” 

“And I didn’t mean to screw him over,” Taako continues, absolutely  _ not  _ answering Lup’s question, “but I did, and it was accidental, but Luce told me that he goes missing and I just  _ know _ that it’s my fault and I’ve been thinking about it for  _ months _ and he probably died in a dirty alleyway and it’s all because of me. I was only trying to help him. I just- I wanted to make sure he’d be okay. He probably hates me. He probably died hating me because I  _ ruined _ it, I ruined everything.” 

At this point, Lup knows trying to get anything out of Taako that isn’t what he’s already thinking is pointless. There are still tears rolling down his cheeks every time he blinks, and his eyes are so distant. She hasn’t seen Taako this upset in years, if ever. She just sits there and rubs his back, her internal monologue a flurry of  _ what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck- _

“I should’ve just told him everything. I had so many chances, but I was too scared. I thought that he would think I was crazy. I was scared he wouldn’t believe me and then throw me back out on the street for being a nutcase. But I should’ve known that he wouldn’t. He would never. I was _ already _ a nutcase to them, what harm would one more thing do?” He takes a deep, shaky breath. “I never should’ve let it get as far as it did. But I just- I liked him so much. I couldn’t help it.” 

Taako sits up, leans his back against the couch behind him. He looks over at Lup, but his eyes are still so far away, looking off to somewhere Lup can’t follow. 

“He was so good, Lup,” he says, “he was so kind and gentle and funny. Sometimes I wonder what it would’ve been like if you’d met him. You would’ve liked him.” Then he laughs, no humour or happiness in it at all, “you know what the last thing I said to him was? I told him that no matter what, I was going to stick with him.” He wipes at the tears on his cheeks. “So much for that,” he mumbles. 

“Taako-” 

“I just thought that maybe we could be happy, you know?” Taako says. His voice shakes and more tears spill from his eyes. He doesn’t even realize how much he’s crying. “I thought that because I knew everything, I could protect him. I thought that maybe then he’d be okay, and we’d be okay, and we could-” his breath hitches, “I didn’t know I was going to come back. I didn’t know I was leaving him behind.” 

Taako buries his face in his hands and lets out a sob. Lup, at a loss for what else to do, pulls him into her chest and just holds him. Lets him cry. She can feel his whole body shaking. She meets Barry’s eyes from across the room.  _ We fucked up _ , she mouths out to him. He nods, glancing at Taako and back at Lup, sadness in his eyes. 

Then, in a broken, sad voice, Taako says, “I didn’t even get to say goodbye.” 

Lup and Barry’s hearts break. 

“Okay, Koko,” Lup says, guiding Taako to his feet, “let’s get you to bed.” 

Lup walks Taako up and into the guest bedroom. She tucks him into bed and he falls asleep quickly, the alcohol running through him lending itself to that. Lup leaves the room and closes the door softly behind her. She goes back down to the main floor where Barry is waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs. 

“So,” she says, “I’m pretty sure Taako got 1920s gay married, and we fucked up.” 

“What do we do?” 

Lup thinks it over, “maybe we should go talk to Lucretia? He mentioned her somewhere in his rambling, she might know something.” 

It’s a long shot, because if Lup didn’t know about this, she’s sure as hell no one else did either. But Taako, drunk and emotional and sad, said something about Lucretia. So it’s off to Lucretia they go. 

Barry and Lup go to the museum the next morning, right at opening. They ask the person at the front desk for Lucretia. They go and meet her at the entrance to her 1920s feature. 

“Have you talked to Taako recently?” Lup asks, getting straight to the point, “about his trip?” 

“Aside from last night when he was constantly mentioning how illegal it was for him to be drunk? Not really. Why? Is everything okay?” 

“It’s just-” Lup glances over at Barry, who nods, “he was saying some stuff last night, after everyone left, and he mentioned something you told him.”

“Something I told him?” 

“Yeah, about a guy who went missing?” 

At this, recollection dawns on Lucretia’s face. “Oh yeah,” she says, “Taako  _ was  _ here a few months ago. I saw him standing over this way,” she turns and starts leading Barry and Lup into the exhibit, “so I came over to say hi. I saw him looking at this picture-” she stops in front of the wall of speakeasy documents and pictures and gestures to the one she’s talking about, “-and he asked me about Kravitz,” she points, “that guy there.” 

Lup looks at the man in question. She can only really see his side profile, but he looks handsome. Then she looks at the picture as a whole. Two women, Kravitz, and another man with his back to the camera. All laughing. The other man has lighter, shorter hair, lighter skin, and a glass of something in his hand. 

“When is this from?” Lup asks. 

“Mid-20s, we think. ‘25 or ‘26,” Lucretia says. 

_ Taako would’ve been there, then, _ Lup thinks. She purses her lips, still looking at the picture, the cogs in her mind turning.  _ Taako would’ve been there. This is all local stuff. He came here to seek this out. He asked about this man, specifically. The fuck-  _

“Holy shit,” Lup says. Lucretia and Barry both look at her. She points at the other man in the photo, “that’s Taako.” 

Lucretia’s eyes go wide, “are you sure?”    
  
“I mean, I think so? Probably? Just from context clues, I think-” Lup pauses. She turns to Barry, “we need to go home.”

“Lup-” 

“We need to go home, right now, and I don’t care how hungover he is, he’s going to tell me what happened.” 

Lup walks past Barry and towards the door. “Thanks, Lucretia,” Barry says, before following Lup out, “you helped us out a lot.” 

“Anytime.” Lucretia watches them leave. Then she looks back over at the picture, at what is probably the back of Taako’s head. She smiles a little, shakes her head. “I should’ve known,” she says. 

Taako is lying curled up in bed, on his phone, when the door is thrown open rather aggressively. 

“Hey, what’s the big idea?” He says, looking up at the looming figure of his sister as she marches towards him. 

She stands next to the bed and crosses her arms, “I want to know what happened to you in the 20s.” 

“I told you-” 

“I want to know what  _ really _ happened, Taako. Not your watered-down version.” 

He looks back at his phone, hoping to deter her, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” 

Lup sits down on the edge of the bed, “I know something happened, Taako. I know you met someone.” 

“I met a lot of people.” 

“Taako,” she reaches out and pushes down on his wrist, forcing him to lower his phone and look at her, “you know what I mean. You cried all over me about him last night, and I know you sought out information from Lucretia. Please,” she takes a hold of his hand, grips it tight, “tell me what happened.” 

Taako sighs. Knowing he’s got no way out of this one, he sits up in bed and slides over, patting the spot next to him. Lup moves to sit beside him. He rests his head on her shoulder, and proceeds to tell her everything. From meeting Sloane at the dance hall, all the way up to the day she zapped him away. A long time and some tears later, Taako finishes his story. 

“God, Taako,” Lup says, “I’m sorry. I didn’t- I didn’t realize-” 

All that time that Taako was stuck, Lup didn’t even think that he’d make a life there. She was just so focused on getting him  _ back _ she barely even thought about what he was doing aside from waiting to come home. But he had friends, he fell in love, he built a whole life for himself and Lup didn’t even  _ know _ . He’d kept this from her, from everyone. Now that she knows, she can’t believe she just took the vague story he told them at face value. 

After that conversation, Lup starts thinking. And she keeps thinking. She thinks until she’s got a whole plan in her head. It’s a plan that makes her very nervous, but a plan nonetheless. She tells Barry about it, maybe a week after her conversation with Taako. He agrees with her, says he’ll go along with it, but she needs to talk to Taako first. So she does the only rational thing and shows up at his apartment unannounced. 

He opens the door, “Lup?” 

“I have a proposition for you.” 

Taako steps aside to let her in. They go and sit on his couch and she tells him about her plan. It’s a plan that goes like this: 

  1. She and Barry work on the time machine again. Make it better. Make sure it works.
  2. She and Barry make a device that allows them to communicate with the time traveller.
  3. She and Barry send Taako back in time again.
  4. Taako finds Kravitz. 
  5. Taako tells Kravitz everything. 
  6. Taako asks Kravitz to come back to the modern world with him. 
  7. Kravitz (hopefully) accepts. 
  8. Using the shiny new communication device, Taako tells them when he’s ready to come back to the present. 
  9. They bring Taako back, Kravitz (hopefully) in tow. 
  10. Everyone lives happily ever after. 



Taako stares at Lup. She wrings her hands together nervously, “what do you think?” 

“You’re willing to send me back in time again?” 

“If you’re willing to go.” 

“Why?” 

“Because the more I think about all of this, the more I think the time loop theory is right. I think Kravitz goes missing because he comes back here with you.” 

“How can you be sure?” 

Lup sighs. “I can’t be. But we won’t know unless we try.” 

Taako’s mind is reeling. He’d thought, briefly, about the possibility of going back for Kravitz, but had written it off as wishful thinking. But now here’s Lup, giving him the opportunity. After the whole debacle from last time, she’s willing to send him back again.

Lup can see the gears turning in Taako’s head as he thinks this over. “Taako,” she says, taking his hand, “I want to do this for you. I’m the one that took you away without warning, so I want to offer you this chance at your happiness. If nothing else, I want to try and give you some sort of proper closure. And if that closure means going back to the time travel project, then we’re going back to the time travel project.” 

“You’d do that for me?” 

“I’d do anything for you, you know that.” 

Taako pulls her in for a hug, and they hold each other tight. The decision is made, then, that they’re going to go ahead with Lup’s plan. Lup and Barry start work on their time machine and it’s new communication device right away. But inventing things takes time. Especially when they function outside of the known laws of science. 

“It could take a while,” Lup warns Taako, “but we’re going to go as quickly as we can, without sacrificing the integrity of the machine.” 

So Taako waits, and as he waits, he prepares. With some guidance from Lucretia, he does as much research as he can, trying to get any inclination on what happened to Kravitz in the 30s. He doesn’t find any of the answers he’s looking for, but deep in the recesses of Google, he does find two old records of Kravitz being sold online. He buys them, along with a shiny new record player that he puts in the same corner where Kravitz kept his gramophone. He listens to the recordings, and they’re only instrumental, but knowing that it’s  _ Kravitz _ , that it’s his hands playing those notes, stitching together the song, it makes Taako ache for him even more. 

Taako prepares himself to go back. He thinks about where he’s going to look for Kravitz, thinks about what he’s going to say when he sees him again. He thinks about where he’ll take him so they can talk in private. But he also prepares himself for Kravitz hating him. He prepares himself for if Kravitz doesn’t want to listen to what he has to say. He prepares himself to come back alone. 

Despite Lup’s warning, it only takes them a year to deem the machine and communicator good to go. When it comes to inventing new science, a year is pretty damn good. 

The machine is the same, just some tweaks and improvements here and there to make sure the return trip will actually happen this time. The new communicator is a simple thing, a small rectangle with a green button that’s got a plastic covering on top. 

“All you gotta do,” Lup says, “is open up the covering and push the button when you’re ready to come back. We’ll get a signal on our end that tells us when you’ve pushed it, so we can trigger the return trip.” 

Taako’s dressed in the same clothes he was wearing the day he came back. The weight of the money in his inner pocket a constant reminder of where he’s going, what he’s about to do, and who he’s about to see. He takes the communicator from Lup and turns it over in his hand. He slips it into a pocket, “what about Kravitz?” 

“Just make sure you’re holding onto him, and he’ll come through with you.” 

Taako takes a deep breath, “okay.” 

“All set?” 

“Yeah, do it.” 

Barry smiles from where he sits behind the control panel. “Bon voyage,” he says, pushing the button. Taako disappears too quickly to register it, but Lup gives him a well-deserved smack on the shoulder. 

**Act 4: Going Back**

Taako gets dropped in the same boiler room he showed up in the first time. He blinks, letting his eyes adjust for only a moment before he heads to the door. He’s up the stairs, through the lobby, and out on the street quickly. His heart hammers in his chest. 

First order of business: figure out when he is. All he knows is that he was going to get dropped somewhere between 1929 and 1936. It’s been two years for him, but how long has it been for Kravitz? A few months? A year? Five years? He needs to know. 

He walks towards the newspaper stand down the street and swipes a copy, just like he did the first time. He hits an intersection and turns, crossing horizontally, heading towards his apartment. He unfolds the newspaper as he walks, ignoring the articles and big headlines, instead looking for the date in the top corner. 

January 1934. Four and a half years. Not great, but still not as bad as it could’ve been. He refolds the paper and tucks it back under his arm. 

He all but runs to his building and is in and up the stairs before he knows it. He stands in front of his door. Kravitz’s door. Their door. He steels himself, takes a deep breath, and knocks. 

A stranger opens it. 

“Oh,” Taako says, looking at the confused and unfamiliar face, and tries his best not to look disappointed, “I must’ve gotten the address wrong. Sorry to bother you.” 

He turns and walks away before the stranger gets the chance to say anything. He’s back out on the sidewalk and tries not to let the paranoid thoughts creep in. 

_ Maybe he moved, maybe he moved, maybe he moved,  _ Taako thinks on repeat, trying to keep the worse possibilities at bay. 

His next stop is the speakeasy. It’s getting into the evening, and Kravitz was one of Sloane’s favourites. Even if he moved, he’s bound to still be playing there. 

Taako is halfway there when he remembers that prohibition ended in late 1933. Sloane’s family’s speakeasy was tucked in behind an actual restaurant, and chances are they merged the two together, or started doing different illegal things in that back room. Taako just hopes they kept Kravitz on as a musician. 

When he gets there, he goes around the side of the building to the door in the alley. There’s a sign attached to it:  _ Please Go To the Front Entrance _ . Taako feels weird, using the front door. He’d gotten so accustomed to slipping into the alley, knocking out a rhythm, and Killian opening the door to let him in. But he goes to the front door and walks in as any normal patron would. There’s no host waiting at the door, so Taako takes a moment to look around. 

He’s never actually come into the main restaurant before, but it always seemed to be busy whenever he would walk past. Now, though, only a few tables are filled. And there’s no music playing, not a musician in sight. Taako’s trying to figure out what the hell he’s going to do to find out if Kravitz still plays here when he hears a loud “hey!” come from the back of the room. 

Taako looks towards the sound, and he sees a very angry-looking Sloane coming towards him. 

“Oh dear,” he says quietly to himself. An angry Sloane is not a good Sloane. 

She marches right up to him and jabs a finger into his chest, “who do you think you are, showing your face around here again?”

“Sloane, I-” 

“You think you can just come back here after what you’ve done? What do you have to say for yourself?” 

“I know, I messed up, everything went wrong, I’m trying to make it right,” Taako says, desperate. 

“Oh yeah? And how do you plan to do that?” 

“I need to know where Kravitz is. Does he still play here?” 

Sloane laughs, a touch hysterical, “Kravitz? No, he doesn’t play here anymore. He can’t. We couldn’t afford to pay him.” 

“Do you know where he is, at least?” 

“Nope.” 

“Where’d you see him last?” 

“Here. When he was getting fired. Two years ago.” 

Taako groans and runs his hands down his face. He turns to the door, “thanks anyway, Sloane.”

He leaves, and is finding it harder and harder to keep the worst possibilities of where Kravitz could be out of his mind, the image of him dead in an alley flashing in his mind over and over, accompanied by the words  _ your fault, your fault, your fault _ . 

The apartment and the speakeasy were Taako’s two main places to look for Kravitz. Now that he knows he’s at neither, all he can do is wander the streets and hope to find him. 

“Please, please, please, please, please,” he whispers to himself as he walks, begging the universe to put Kravitz around the next corner. But the more Kravitz-less corners Taako turns, the more dread builds up inside him. Taako doesn’t know how much time passes, his feet ache and his eyes sting and his heart hurts, but he can’t stop. He  _ has _ to keep looking, he has to believe that Kravitz is out here, somewhere. He can feel Kravitz’s money pressed up against him as it sits in the inner pocket of his coat.  _ If nothing else, _ he had told himself before he came back, _ I’m going to give him back his money. I can at least make that right. _ But the longer he goes without finding him, the more he starts to think he might not get that chance. He starts to worry that he’s too late, that Kravitz is already missing and gone and he’s never going to see him again. 

Taako is just about out of hope when he hears trumpet music in the distance. It’s sad and smooth and there are so many musicians in the city, but it’s the only lead Taako’s gotten this whole time, so he follows it. It stops, once, and Taako’s worried he missed his chance, but then it starts up again. A new song, still tinged with sadness, but smooth and lilting and expertly played. He keeps going. The music gets louder with each block, with each intersection he crosses, until it’s so loud, Taako knows it’s just around the corner. 

Taako turns, and there, just down the street and across the intersection, standing on the opposite corner from him, is Kravitz. He’s standing right underneath a streetlight, with nothing but a suitcase and a trumpet, his coat isn’t quite made for the January weather, and Taako knows he’s probably tired and hungry and cold, but he’s  _ alive _ . 

Taako’s about halfway across the street when Kravitz notices him. The song he’s playing stops dead. No fade out or fumbled note, just a full stop. He lowers his trumpet and stares as Taako comes towards him. 

Kravitz can’t believe what he’s seeing. He’s half convinced that the cold and hunger and fatigue is finally getting to him. Taako looks almost exactly the same as the last time he saw him. He’s even wearing the same clothes. Kravitz is in a daze, he thinks he’s dreaming, but then Taako starts to talk. 

“Holy shit, Kravitz, oh my God,” he says, putting a hand on Kravitz’s arm, “I’ve been looking for you for ages. I’m so glad to see you, you have  _ no  _ idea.” 

It’s the touch of Taako’s hand on his arm that brings Kravitz back to reality. All the hurt and anger from the last four and a half years come back to him. He steps away from Taako, pulling his arm out of his grasp. 

“What the fuck, Taako,” he says, “you think you can just come back here and act like nothing happened? After you disappeared with  _ everything _ ?” Taako doesn’t even look like he’s been affected at  _ all _ by the last few years. He’s clean and fed and put together. “Where have you  _ been? _ ” 

“I can explain everything, I swear,” and Taako’s got this look in his eyes that seems almost like relief mixed with something else, but then again, Kravitz thought Taako loved him only for him disappear, so what does he know? “Why don’t I buy you some dinner first?” 

“No. You said you can explain, so explain.” 

Taako bites his lip and looks around, takes note of the people walking past. “Not here. Somewhere private.”

“Why?” 

“I don’t want other people to overhear.” 

Kravitz sighs, irritated, “fine.” 

Taako hovers as Kravitz packs away his trumpet and picks up his bag. Taako leads him down the street. 

Kravitz is angry. Taako had said that he’d stick with him, and on that same day, he did the complete opposite. Kravitz could never understand why. Why say something so mysterious yet sweet like that and then immediately abandon him? Was everything they had a lie? Was it all just a big con? He doesn’t want to look at Taako as they walk, but they’re waiting to cross the street, and Kravitz glances over. Taako’s got a small frown on his face and is fiddling with something in his pocket. Thinking. Kravitz shakes his head and looks back out at the street. Whatever explanation Taako thinks can make this okay, it better be good. 

Taako leads him to a hotel. Not one of the incredibly fancy ones, but still, a  _ hotel _ . He gets them a room, and he pays with cash. Kravitz wonders where he got it. He wonders if he scammed someone else for it. 

_ What is he doing here? _ Kravitz ponders.  _ What does he want? More money? Sex? Is he really just here to explain?  _

They go up to the room. It’s simple. Two beds, a desk, a few chairs. Kravitz puts his bag down and takes off his coat. He can feel Taako’s eyes on him. He sits on the end of one of the beds and looks over at Taako, who’s still hovering near the door. 

“Okay,” Kravitz says, “explain it to me.” 

And oh  _ boy  _ does Taako explain. He tells him that he’s from the future, that his sister and her husband built a time machine, that when they met he’d been stuck in 1924 for a few days, that he didn’t know when or if he was ever going to go home. And it’s so much, and none of it makes sense, and Kravitz is just sitting there and taking it as Taako tells him all of this and more. 

And then, oh, and  _ then _ Taako says, “and you can come with me, if you want to.” 

“What?” 

“I need to go back, but you can come with me.” Kravitz stares at Taako, who shifts under his gaze, “what do you think?” 

  
  


“What do I  _ think _ ?” Kravitz laughs, maybe a little unhinged, “I think this is all fucking  _ insane _ ! Time travel, Taako? Really? That’s what you’re going with?” 

Taako sighs, defeated, “yeah, I figured this would happen.” 

“What, that I wouldn’t believe you’re a fucking  _ time traveller _ ?” 

Taako doesn’t say anything. He walks over to Kravitz, pulls something out of the inner pocket of his coat, and holds it out. It takes Kravitz a moment, but he realizes that it’s...money. A good chunk of it, too.

He looks up at Taako, “what is this?” 

“It’s yours,” Taako says, calm as anything. “You don’t believe me, you don’t want to come with me, so I told myself that if that was the case, I would give this back to you.” 

Kravitz just stares at it. 

“Aside from what the room cost, it’s all there.” 

Kravitz reaches up, slowly, and takes it from Taako’s hand. He’s still staring at it, completely caught off guard. He can’t believe it. It’s still wrapped up in a piece of paper stamped with the bank’s seal. It’s real. Kravitz doesn’t understand. If Taako wanted to scam him out of his money in the first place, then why is he giving this back now? 

Then Kravitz realizes that if Taako came back to try and get more money out of him, why would he have stuck around after seeing that he has nothing to his name but one suitcase and a trumpet? And if he came back just to try and get something  _ physical _ out of him, then why, since Kravitz stepped away from him on the street, has Taako been keeping his distance? 

“I’m sorry,” Taako says, “I love you, and...I wish you the best.” 

Taako turns to leave, and Kravitz realizes that Taako isn’t here to get something out of him. And he isn’t going to try and convince him his crazy story is true. He came here to explain himself. He’s said what he wanted to say, Kravitz told him what he thought, and Taako’s leaving it at that. 

Taako’s  _ leaving _ . 

Kravitz reaches out and grabs his wrist. Taako turns back to look at him. Kravitz sits completely still. “Tell me again,” he says. 

“What?” 

“Tell me again,” Kravitz looks up at him, his face looking like he’s seen a ghost, “one more time. From the beginning.” 

Taako sits down next to him on the bed, and he starts again. Kravitz goes into the second telling thinking that maybe Taako’s insane, but he isn’t malicious. But the more Taako tells him, the more everything else makes so much sense. Taako’s shiftiness around certain subjects, not understanding jokes or slang, how vague he’d be about where he came from, telling Kravitz to sell his stocks, telling Kravitz to save money, convincing Kravitz to close out his bank account. Taako gets to the end of his second telling, and Kravitz believes him. 

“This whole time,” Kravitz says, “you knew what was coming. I thought closing out the bank account was just paranoia, then I thought it was a con, but you  _ knew _ .” 

“I just wanted to help,” Taako says, his eyes watery, “I thought that I could anticipate what would happen. I meant it when I said I would stick with you, I wanted to, but that’s when my sister brought me back. And she didn’t know, it’s not her fault, it was all just a case of bad timing. I’m sorry, God, I’m  _ so _ sorry, Krav. I didn’t mean to take it and I should’ve explained this all to you sooner, but-” 

“Taako.” Kravitz cuts off Taako’s rambling. He puts the money Taako gave him down on the bed behind him, and he takes Taako’s face in his hands. “Look at me and tell me that this is the truth.” 

Taako meets his eyes, “it is.” 

Kravitz spent almost five years with Taako. He knows him, knows when he’s lying. The look in Taako’s eyes is nothing but genuine, and Kravitz realizes that the  _ something else  _ he saw in them when they reunited on the street was nerves. Fear. He can see that Taako’s prepared himself for rejection. “Okay,” Kravitz says, pulling Taako into his arms, “I believe you.” 

Taako buries his face in the crook of Kravitz’s neck, and he cries quietly. Kravitz is thinner than he was, a little less soft to hug, but he’s alive and he’s holding him and he believes him. “I love you,” Taako says, “I love you and I’m sorry.”

“I know,” Kravitz says, pressing a kiss to the top of Taako’s head, “it’s okay, I love you too.” 

They sit there for a while, just holding each other. Taako can feel Kravitz’s ribs and spine through his shirt, and his collarbone and jawbone are more pronounced, and it all makes Taako’s chest ache because  _ if only _ \- 

But he can’t worry about that anymore. He’s told Kravitz the truth, he’s given back what he took, and now it’s just the question of if Kravitz will come back to the modern world with him. He doesn’t know how to bring it back up. Sure, Kravitz believes him now, but that doesn’t mean he’ll want to go back with him. Taako just wants to sit here in Kravitz’s arms for as long as possible. 

Then Kravitz’s stomach growls. Really loudly. Taako pulls back from their hug. “I guess we should get you something to eat,” he says. 

Kravitz smiles, a little sheepish, “yeah, I guess so.” 

Taako stands. Kravitz picks up the money from where he’d put it down on the bed. “Hey Taako,” he says, looking down at it. Taako turns to face him. He holds up it up, “is this stuff still valid where you’re from? Or,  _ when _ you’re from, I guess.” 

Taako thinks back to the research he did, trying to remember if that was something he learned. “I think so? I’m not sure if it could be used it as is, but someone could probably still put it in an account and use it from there.” 

“Then why didn’t you?” 

“Because it’s not mine. It’s yours.” 

Kravitz stands up, a small smile on his face. He holds the money out to Taako. 

“What are you doing?” Taako asks. 

“Take it.” 

“What?” 

“Take it and put it in your account.” 

“What? No! Why?” 

“Well, no one here is going to use it.” 

At this, Taako pauses. He looks down at the money being held out to him, then back up at Kravitz, who’s smiling at him. “What are you saying?” He asks, his voice soft, hesitant. 

“I’m saying that you should take this. I’m not going to use it here.” 

“Which means…”

“I’ll go back with you, if you’ll have me.” 

Taako practically leaps at Kravitz, throwing his arms around his neck and pulling him into a kiss. Kravitz stumbles, dropping the money and taking a step back to maintain their balance as he kisses Taako back. Kravitz had felt so hurt and betrayed for years, but now here Taako is. His strange and beautiful Taako who appeared out of nowhere, twice, and managed to sweep him off his feet both times. 

_ Time travel _ , Kravitz thinks as he finally kisses Taako again,  _ of all the things it could’ve been.  _

Eventually, they both need to come up for air. 

“You’re sure about this?” Taako asks.

“Taako,” Kravitz says, “God, I was so angry at you, you know? But for some reason, when my life was falling apart, I still found myself thinking about you. I wondered where you were, what you were doing, if you were okay. I had to remind myself, sometimes, that I was mad at you. You appeared in my life out of nowhere, like- like an angel coming from the sky, and I couldn’t stop thinking about you, and now that I know the truth, God-” Kravitz kisses him again, long and hard, “I love you, Taako. You are, honestly, the best thing that’s ever happened to me. So yes, I’m sure.” 

“Even though-” 

“Yes,” Kravitz interrupts, “yes, Taako. I love you, and I don’t think I ever stopped.” 

And Kravitz is crying, tears rolling down his hollow cheeks when he blinks. Taako reaches up and brushes them away. “I love you too,” Taako says and kisses him softly, “what do you say we go home?” 

Kravitz nods. He steps away from Taako, only for a moment, to grab his suitcase. He stoops and picks up the money he dropped when Taako pounced on him. He holds it out to him again, “I was serious when I said you should take this.” 

Taako takes it from him, slipping it back into his coat’s inner pocket. Then, out of another pocket, he takes a small rectangular device. He holds out his hand for Kravitz to take. He does. 

“Ready?” 

Kravitz takes a deep breath, “yeah.” 

Taako pushes the button in his hand, then Kravitz blinks, and he’s somewhere else. He’s dazed for a moment, but a triumphant shout of “aha!” catches his attention. He looks, and he sees two people standing a short distance away. Taako’s sister and her husband, clearly. The two of them are grinning, Taako’s sister with her arms held up triumphantly. Kravitz feels a tug on his hand, and he looks over to see Taako still standing next to him, smiling. 

“How do you feel?” He asks.

Kravitz opens his mouth to respond, when his stomach responds for him with another very loud rumble. He hears Taako’s sister’s snort of laughter from across the room. 

“Guess that answers that question,” she says. 

“Well don’t just stand there, Lup,” Taako says, stepping down off the platform Kravitz didn’t realize they were standing on, pulling him along, “let’s get the man something to eat!” 

**Author's Note:**

> And there it is!! Thank you so much for reading, comments and kudos are much, much appreciated, and if you want to come yell at me about this, my tumblr is @fandomsnstuff


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